Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Life on the Outside

It's hard to believe that someone as powerful as Joe Lieberman could have been unseated by his own party. Democrats are claiming that this was a vote of confidence against Bush (since Lieberman's support of Bush was a main point of contention); Republicans are claiming that this proves that Democrats are weak on national defence; John Lennard wrote a thoughtful piece about the movement to get more real liberals in the Democratic party... to tell you the truth, I don't have any idea what it means, or even how it could have happened.

But I bet Lieberman wins the election as an independent, and that's where things might get interesting. In an evenly divided senate, Lieberman-the-independent could be a very powerful man. I would suggest that the Dems shouldn't piss him off too much, but I think that bridge is crossed. I can see Lieberman bringing a new role to US politics, that of an outsider rainmaker with his own agenda. It might get very interesting.